Green Bay

 

 

After a stormy Sunday and another stormy day in today’s forecast, we got up early Monday for the 6:30 opening of the Michigan Street Bridge.  We were on our way to Green Bay in search of cheese heads – and hoping to arrive well before the thunderstorms…

 

Not much activity on Green Bay this morning.  The occasional fisherman could be seen working his nets (which always seemed to be directly on our cruising course). A few white pelicans were out looking for breakfast which brings to mind a cute limerick attributed to Dixon Lanier Merritt.

                  A wonderful bird is the pelican,

                  His beak can hold more than his beli-can.

                           He can hold in his beak

                           Enough food for a week

                  But I’m damned if I see how the heli-can!

As we got closer to the entrance to Green Bay’s Fox River, we passed this rocky outcropping covered with dozens of white pelicans!

Approaching Green Bay and the north-flowing Fox River

Andy, the dock master, greeted us warmly upon arrival at South Bay Marina.  His welcome-boater package included two t-shirts which always makes the Captain happy!

Green Bay is Wisconsin’s oldest settlement dating back to the 1600’s when Europeans came to trap beaver for their highly prized pelts.  Today the city’s largest employers are the shipping and paper industries. And that is fitting since Green Bay is credited with the invention of the world’s first splinter-free toilet paper, Northern Tissue.  In 1930 the engineers at Northern Paper Mills of Green Bay developed the method of linenizing paper, creating a softer product and eliminating those pesky splinters.  Who knew?!?!

 

Donald Driver statue at Titletown Brewing

 

After a wet, stormy morning we Ubered to Titletown Brewery Restaurant housed in the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad Depot.   In the early years of Green Bay Packers history, the team’s road trips often started and ended at this depot; faithful fans would gather here to send them off or greet their arrival.  The biggest celebration followed the first Packers NFL championship win over the Chicago Bears in 1929 when some 20,000 fans lined the nearby streets to meet the team train.  Outside the brewery is an enormous statue of Donald Driver, the Packers all-time leading receiver, who is scheduled to be inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in July.  Lunch at the restaurant would have to satisfy our quest for team trivia until tomorrow’s tour of Lambeau.  All the tours for today were sold out!

 

A must see while in Green Bay is Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers the only team in the NFL owned by the fans.  The waiting list for season tickets runs 130,000-names long and the wait time is said to be 30 years!  Our first attempt to purchase tickets for a tour of Lambeau on Tuesday was unsuccessful so we had to stay an extra day just to see what all the fuss is about.

Display of the six retired Packers numbers in the atrium of Lambeau Field

It all started in 1919 when Curly Lambeau, a young football player and employee of Indian Packing Company, convinced his employer to back a fledgling football team in Green Bay.  Lambeau and George Calhoun recruited enough players to field a team that fall and began their season playing other teams throughout Wisconsin and Michigan.  In 1921 the team (now the Acme Packers) joined the ranks of the American Professional Football Association. 

The first 50 years of play were plagued by losing seasons and fraught with financial issues that almost led to the demise of the club.  The hiring of Vince Lombardi in 1959 and a sale of stocks kept the team going strong.  The Packers won Super Bowls I and II under Lombardi and he would be recognized as one of football’s greatest coaches.

As Tom, our tour guide, put it the 1970’s and 1980’s were ‘entertaining at best’ as the Packers finished the next 24 seasons post-Lombardi with only 5 winning records.  In 1992, Brett Favre came on as quarterback and we all know how things went after that!

Our tour included a run through the Packers tunnel to the field at Lambeau

 

After the tour of Lambeau Field and a refresher at its 1919 Kitchen and Tap we wandered through the Packers Hall of Fame.  On display – just about anything and everything you would care to know about the team and its legendary players including the evolution of the football uniform, four Vince Lombardi trophies, numerous players’ Super Bowl rings, dozens of Brett Favre bobble heads and a video of his induction into the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton.

Throughout Lambeau Field one thing becomes very apparent and that is the admiration that the team feels for its fans and the undying loyalty that Green Bay has for its team.  Consider one of the longstanding traditions started in the Lombardi era – during training camp, young boys and girls have the opportunity to share their bicycles with the players for the ride between the team locker room and the practice facility across the road.  The players pedal - sometimes with the kids on board or sometimes handing their helmets to the kids, riding solo and reconnecting at the practice field – what a great experience for the kids and a builder of life-long fans!